Sittingbourne northern relief road

Sittingbourne is within Thames Gateway and a focus for economic regeneration and housing and employment growth.
The Relief Road is a long standing aspiration to provide a route around the north of the town from the A249 Grovehurst Interchange to the A2 at Bapchild.
The section from the A249 to Ridham Avenue was constructed as part of the Kemsley Fields development and opened in January 2005. The section from Castle Road towards Tonge was built as part of the East Hall Farm development. The connection to the A2 is a longer term proposal and not currently programmed.
The important middle section from Ridham Avenue across Milton Creek to Castle Road is being progressed by the County Council. It will give access to new development and Eurolink, remove severance caused by the Creek. It will relieve town centre roads and give increased opportunities for the regeneration of the town centre.
The scheme has Local Transport Plan provisional funding of £29m and Sustainable Communities provisional funding of £10.4m from Government and a developer contribution.

Current Situation

The scheme receive planning consent in October 2006. The Compulsory Purchase Order, Side Roads Order and S106 Scheme (to cross Milton Creek) was published in February 2007.

There are objections to the Orders. In July the County Council decided to promote a slight amendment to the layout of the scheme at Ridham Avenue scheme in order to try and achieve a compromise solution. This will require an application for planning consent. The current Orders are therefore not being progressed and considered at public inquiry as would normally be the case.

There are also many objections to the proposal for a fixed link bridge across Milton Creek. An opening bridge has an extra capital cost and a high annual operating and maintenance cost. The County Council remains of the view that in the circumstances the fixed link remains the preferred solution but a final decision will be taken later in the year prior to republication of the Orders.